An experiment...

M

mainstreet1997

Member
Yeah, I know I haven't been around much lately - life's been a little crazy. But I'm hoping to remedy that!
So tomorrow at school I've declared it "Fancy Dancy day" - the kids get to wear dresses / nice clothes if they want tomorrow. The girls are SO excited! ; I thought for Mother's Day I would take some nice pics of the kids in their nice clothes. ; Of course Ive NEVER done any portrait photography and this is going to be kind of informal. So we'll see. Anyway today I pulled out my "Understanding Exposure" and "Portrait and Candid Photography" books to do some research. ; I did a lot of reading about reflectors and how they can help even out those nasty shadows you get in the sun. ; I did some reading online and well and started reading about DIY ; reflectors. ; I had to go to the dollar store anyway so I picked up a piece of white foam board and a roll of aluminum foil. Since I don't have any models I went outside with my make shift reflector to take some shots of the one flower growing in our backyard so far. ; I THINK I see some differences and I like what I see - the shadows are a lot less harsh to me!
;
[expando]http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q121/ktmac111581/none.jpg[/expando] No reflector
[expando]http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q121/ktmac111581/silver.jpg[/expando] With reflector aka foam board covered with foil!

Katie


Deciding if I should take my DIY reflector with me tomorrow (with the HUGE box of stuff I have to take anyway) to see if it would help any. ; I don't really have it planned yet. Hoping to get some shots outside - not going to have a lot of time anyway, just for fun. ;

PS. - Whats the best aperature to use for the 18-55 kit lens for portraits?
How about for the 50mm f/1.8?
 
I see a difference with the reflector and you will see more of a difference with the kids. ; As for aperture, what kind of backgrounds are available? ; In the thread with Miss Mandy's sister, she had a nice background of greenery. ;

The 50mm f/1.8 on a cropped dSLR makes for a nice portrait lens. ; Be careful not to use it at f/1.8...try f/4 or f/5.6. ; That way you won't get noses and ears out of focus when you focus on the eyes. ; The background will still be a bit out of focus at those apertures, too.

Good luck and I hope you will post some of the photos.
 
Thanks Scott! ; Right outside my classroom there is a bench surrounded by some tall evergreens that I might use. ; I might try to dig out a decent looking blanket that I could put on the grass as well to change it up a little. Probably not going to use any props, but we'll see. I was just thinking one of my girls has a stuffed puppy that she absolutely adores so that might be cute to use. LIke I said, its not really a photoshoot and I still have to be in teacher mode so I won't have too much time. ; But Im kind of excited!
 
Scott, the pictures turned out pretty good. Looking back Ive still got a few things to work on but I think the Mom's will love them. ; Ended up using the 18-55 since it gave me a little more space to move around. ;

Will send you a few examples by PM when I finish playing with them! ; Thanks again for your help!

Katie
 
Glad to hear it worked out well. ; If you hadn't taken the pictures yet, I was going to suggest having one of your students be your assistant and hold the reflector for you.
 
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